Apple Acquires HopStop

Quick quiz: do you know of or use HopStop? It's a public transit navigation solution that while successful never made it to my or my friends phones or lips (See APB coverage where among other things I predicted the company would not make it and it proved me wrong).

There are no details on the deal, but Bloomberg reported it and Apple confirmed it to Mashable.

The general sense from the media, and I agree, is that Apple is getting serious about mapping and navigation and LBS. Recall that since launch Apple has not included public transit in it's app; users needed to rely on a third party solution of which HopStop was one. That's not only annoying, it's inelegant, and it means users had to pick one. Now, Apple has done the choosing on their behalf.

HopStop includes support for 700 transit systems in seven countries and includes crowdsourced information on delays in its current iOS app.

I for one am hopful the name HopStop goes away. It's far too hard to say, and to type correctly or even parse in my brain, despite the fact that its two parts rhyme.